


Two Crashes - Two Survivors

by Bluewolf458



Category: The Sentinel (TV)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-02
Updated: 2020-03-02
Packaged: 2021-02-28 03:14:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,214
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22986943
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bluewolf458/pseuds/Bluewolf458
Summary: An AU meeting for Jim and Blair. The first chapter is the concrit entry
Relationships: Jim Ellison & Blair Sandburg
Comments: 6
Kudos: 28
Collections: TSCC 13: AU Meeting





	1. Two Crashes

Two Crashes - Two Survivors

by Bluewolf

Although they chose to live the traditional hunter-gatherer life, the Chopek were far from primitive. Several of their men, and even a few of their women, were well educated, having been to school in Iquitos. So they knew, when they saw a plane flying far too low and getting steadily lower, that it was in trouble and a group of warriors had already set out before the too-loud noise told them that the plane had crashed.

Fortunately, the crash didn't start a fire; but the warriors found only two survivors, a young woman clutching a piece of hand luggage and her baby son.

They took the two survivors back to their village. The young woman, however, died just before they reached it. The shaman's wife fostered the baby, and named him Incacha.

The jungle animals were frightened away by the white men who came and checked the wreckage of the plane, recovered as many of the bodies as they could (several were never found) and generally disturbed everything for several days; the Chopek moved away, following the animals, and settled some distance away.

***

As Incacha grew up, his foster father Kunak began to train him in the way of the shaman - but a spirit walk told him that the boy had a destiny greater than that of being a tribal shaman, and so he took another apprentice as well. (His own child, a daughter, showed no sign of having a shaman's gifts.) Both boys knew that Guari would be the next Chopek shaman; Incacha knew that one day he would return to the world his mother had come from.

He did go to school in Iquitos, where he learned to read, write and speak both English and Spanish, but after three years he returned to the Chopek to continue learning what he needed to know as shaman.

All of the Chopek who had spent time in the school met at least once every five days to communicate in the two languages they had learned, as well as practicing their reading and writing skills. There was no point in having learned those skills to lose them from lack of using them.

***

When Incacha was twenty, another flying machine, this time a helicopter, crashed near where the tribe was living. The men who checked it found one not too badly injured survivor and seven dead men. Four had clearly died when the helicopter crashed; the one relatively unhurt man had tried to help the other three, but the medical supplies that he needed had been destroyed in the crash, and he had been unable to save them.

The tribesmen buried the dead men, leaving markers at the graves to indicate the identity of each body, and took the survivor back to their village.

***

Incacha was fascinated by the man, whose arrival more or less parallelled what he had been told about his own arrival in Chopek lands - the difference being that this was a grown man and he had been a baby, not yet old enough to walk.

Kunak called the man Enqueri, and encouraged Incacha to help him.

Incacha quickly learned why Enqueri needed help. His senses were more acute than most people's, but without help he could lose himself in what he saw or heard.

Enqueri remained with the tribe for many moons, but eventually his people came for him. He had come to depend on Incacha, who promised to join him as soon as possible.

***


	2. Two Survivors

'As soon as possible' was actually faster than Enqueri had expected.

Enqueri had only been away for a few days when Kunak and Incacha went to Iquitos and from there travelled to Lima and went to the American Embassy there. Kunak showed the staff there the contents of the hand luggage belonging to Incacha's mother - it included her passport with her baby son included on it.

"It was too difficult to bring the child here when he was still a child," Kunak explained, "but we had him educated in Iquitos, our nearest town. I believe it is now time for him to return to his own people."

***

Events moved more swiftly than either Kunak or Incacha had expected.

Both had thought there would be a delay of weeks while the papers in Incacha's mother's bag were checked; instead, a passport in the name of Blair Sandburg was issued to Incacha inside twenty-four hours, and he was given a first class seat on a plane taking him north that same afternoon and the assurance that he would be met at Cascade airport.

He and Kunak bade each other an affectionate farewell, and then - with the luggage that had been his mother's and the one or two belongings that had been his as a trainee shaman of the Chopek - Incacha/Blair was taken to the Lima airfield by the Ambassador.

Incacha - _Blair_ , he reminded himself - was aware of apprehension as he settled into his seat in the plane, and wondered if he had a subconscious memory of the crash when he was only a few weeks old. He took several deep breaths, and fixed his mind on the puzzle of how to find Enqueri, once he reached his destination. And... just who was he, to get this preferential treatment from the American Ambassador to Peru?

***

But no flight lasts forever, and eventually - after what he felt was an eternity but in actual fact was only about fourteen hours - _only_ , he thought - the plane landed at Cascade.

Blair picked up his - his mother's - single bag from where it sat beside him, and made his way off the plane, following the other, presumably far more experienced, passengers. It took almost no time for him to get through Customs, and then he found himself facing the doors out of the airport. He paused for a moment, and then saw a board being held up that bore the name 'Blair Sandburg'. He made his way to it; it was being held up by a man in an impressive-looking uniform.

"Hello - I'm Blair Sandburg."

The man stared at him for a brief second, then, "Welcome to Cascade, sir," as he reached out and took Blair's bag.

Sheer surprise kept Blair from snatching it back. Why should someone else carry his luggage - such as it was? Yet somehow that fitted with the behavior of the Ambassador in Lima.

And he wondered again, as he followed the man to the very impressive-looking limousine that sat at the door - _at the door_ , not somewhere in the airport's parking lot - just who he was - or, rather, who his mother had been.

***

It didn't take long for Blair to realize that he was being driven to the part of Cascade where the rich lived.

Finally the limousine turned into a drive, and stopped in front of the door of a house much larger than any he had seen in Iquitos. The driver moved quickly around the vehicle and opened the door for him.

He got out; the driver closed the door, retrieved his bag and led him to the front door, which opened as they reached it.

The woman who had opened the door took a deep breath. "Welcome home, sir," she said, and turned to lead the way up an impressive flight of stairs.

_Home?_

The stair took them to a hallway with several doors. She stood back, and the driver moved forward and knocked on one of the doors, then opened it. As they entered, a man rose from one of the chairs facing a fireplace, and turned.

It was Blair's turn to take a deep breath. The man facing them was elderly - probably close to seventy - but Blair could see himself in that face.

It didn't need the driver to say anything. Quietly, the man said, "Welcome home, Blair."

The driver put the bag down just inside the door, backed out and closed the door.

All Blair could do was ask, "Who am I?"

"Nobody told you anything?" the elderly man asked.

Blair shook his head. "The Ambassador in Lima... He arranged everything, but... "

"I see. Then let me introduce myself. I'm David Constable. My son is Mayor of Cascade. My nephew is Governor of Washington State.

"Twenty-two years ago, my daughter Naomi married Jacob Sandburg, the son of one of my business colleagues. Jacob's father had an interest in a coffee plantation in Brazil, and sent his son there to learn something about the coffee-growing business. Because he was to be there for a minimum of five years, Jacob decided to take Naomi and their four-week-old son with him. However, their plane never reached Brazil; it crashed in the northern part of Peru. It was believed that everybody on board was killed, although several of the bodies weren't found. Jacob's body was there, but not those of Naomi or their son." He looked questioningly at Blair.

"A local tribe heard the crash, and went to investigate," Blair said. "They found two survivors - a young woman who was holding a young baby and clutching a bag. They decided that the best thing to do was take mother and child back to their village, but the woman died before they reached it. The child - me - was fostered by the local shaman and his wife, who had a daughter of about the same age. They had intended to take me back when a search party found the plane, but when it was found, the rescuers caused so much disturbance that all the animals moved away - and because they hunted those animals for food the tribe had no choice but to follow them.

"Kunak - the shaman - and his wife Qocha reared me as their son. When I was ten, I was taken to Iquitos - as were several others in the tribe - to be educated. We learned to read and write English and Spanish, and also got an education in simple math and history. I was there for three years, then went back to the tribe, and Kunak taught me much of what a shaman needs to know. But he always said that one day I would return to my own people.

"Some nineteen months ago there was another crash near us, and we found one survivor - an American soldier Kunak called Enqueri. He had very good sight and hearing, but needed someone to help him control these and I did that for him. But the army came for him about three weeks ago; a few days later Kunak said it was time for me to leave. He took me to Iquitos, also taking that bag - " he nodded to the bag sitting at the door. "He explained that it was my mother's. I'd never seen it before. After he showed it to the Ambassador... I never thought anyone could move so fast."

David nodded. "I got a phone call two days ago - and I wanted my grandson home. And here you are."

Blair nodded. "I'm here," he said, "and happy to meet my grandfather - but somehow I have to find Enqueri. He needs me."

***

David knew he had to concentrate on teaching Blair his position in Cascade society - luckily, he told himself, Blair already knew what it was to be considered an important member of his society. Not that David actually knew what a shaman did, but it was clear to him that a shaman - and, by extension, a trainee shaman - was an important member of his community.

At least Blair could read and write, but perhaps a little more education would not go amiss? He offered this as a suggestion and found Blair enthusiastic over widening the range of what he knew; and so David employed a tutor to work with Blair. The tutor - Eli Stoddard, a professor recently retired from Rainier University - quickly found that Blair absorbed knowledge, to the point where, within a very short time, Stoddard suggested that Blair could sit the exams that would let him go to university, perhaps lead to a career in academia.

This, David knew, would give his grandson status, though he had higher things in mind for Blair. Blair, however, was less enthusiastic. He loved learning - but he knew that somehow - and soon - he would have to find Enqueri, and begin working with him - whatever he chose to do.

Stoddard was more sympathetic about that than David. 'Enqueri' had been a soldier; but what had his rank been? What was his family status? David did not want Blair to be condemned to life as a mere laborer as a result of a promise made to someone whose father was - say - a builder. Not that he lacked respect for builders who, he conceded, were skilled at what they did, but his highly intelligent grandson was surely destined for better things!

Politics... David himself had few political leanings, despite the positions held by his son and nephew. He was beginning to think that he could perhaps ask his son to give Blair a job as secretary to the Mayor.

And then David got an invitation to a party being given by William Ellison, a business acquaintance.

William's son had been in the army; missing in action, believed killed, but a very belated, indeed accidental, discovery of the whereabouts of his crashed helicopter had led to his rescue some weeks earlier. Debriefing had taken some time, because with the assistance of a local tribe he had continued with the mission his team had been sent to do; but he had finally been given an honorable discharge and was now home.

Blair heard the story with hidden hope. Could it be possible? Could William Ellison's son Jim be his Enqueri? It would be an odd coincidence if Jim Ellison and Enqueri were two different people with an identical incident in their histories.

He prepared to accompany his grandfather to the party, 'dressing up' with less reluctance than he normally felt; growing up in a culture that regarded clothes as nothing more than a nod to modesty - even with the three years he had lived in Iquitos taken into consideration - he really didn't see much point in fancy clothes.

William Ellison lived close enough to David's house that David chose to walk there - five minutes would suffice to cover the distance.

There were several cars parked in the street close to the house. David rang the bell, and an elderly housekeeper opened the door, hung up their coats (Blair still wondering at the mentality of the people who thought that bit of laziness was 'high class') and showed them into a room that was already half full of her employer's guests.

David - with Blair following because he had no idea of what else to do - headed across the room, pausing occasionally to exchange a few words with people he knew.

And then - "Incacha! Is it really you?"

Blair's face lightened in a broad smile. "Enqueri!" and he continued in Quechua, //When my grandfather got the invitation, I was sure 'Jim Ellison' had to be you!//

They gripped each other's arms in what was as close to an embrace as they knew their elders would accept.

//Your grandfather?// Jim responded in Quechua.

//The question of who I was wasn't important, back in Peru,// Blair said. //I couldn't have told you anything more than I was Kunak's adopted son; and this isn't really the place for me to explain. We can surely get together, possibly tomorrow, and discuss it then. Meanwhile, you have a coming home party to enjoy.//

Jim gave a wry smile. //It's an excuse for my father to show off his wealth,// he said. //I wasn't looking forward to it - but with you here... yes, I think I can enjoy it now.//

Blair explained quickly to his grandfather, who at least knew he wanted to find 'Enqueri', while Jim tried to explain something to his father - though it didn't help that he had no idea how his Chopek friend Incacha came to be in Cascade, calling one of William's friends 'Grandfather'.

***

The following day, David and Blair went back to see the Ellison family.

With just the four of them, so that William could pay attention to what he was being told, it was relatively easy to explain Blair's history with the Chopek and Jim's time with them, and how Blair was able to help Jim. It also gave William information on what he had seen as Jim's 'fantasies' when he was growing up, and an understanding of how Jim's heightened senses could be used to help the population in general.

"We need to work together," Blair said. "And we need work that will let us help the community."

"I had thought of the police," Jim said slowly, "when I wasn't sure if I would ever see you again. Although I knew Dad wanted me to join Ellison Enterprises, I never had a way of thinking that would fit me for working there. But there's no guarantee that we'd be assigned to the same department in the police force or partnered there even if we were."

William said slowly, "David, is there any way that your son could use his influence as Mayor... ?"

David shook his head. "He would try, if I asked him to, but frankly I don't think it would be a good idea. I want him to have a reputation as a man who doesn't use his position to gain personal favors."

All three of his listeners understood that when he said 'use' he actually meant 'misuse', and William was grateful for the tact of David's reply.

"So what could we do?" Jim asked. "Something that would help the community but would ensure that we could remain together... "

David snapped his fingers. "The Forest Service!" he exclaimed. "The Rangers patrol the National Forest, make sure that visitors to the area are safe, do Search and Rescue when needed - and someone with your abilities, Jim, would be invaluable for that; and Blair has his years of living as one of a hunter-gatherer tribe to make him knowledgeable about the kind of information visitors would find helpful."

Jim and Blair looked at each other. "It's worth a try," Jim said, and Blair nodded.

***

With their experience of living in the 'wilds' - even though a tropical rain forest wasn't the same as a temperate area - and Jim's abilities - easily proved to the head Ranger - they quickly found themselves employed as Rangers, partnered, and patrolling Cascade National Forest.

It wasn't the prestigious job William and David had wanted for son and grandson; but both men decided that if the two were happy in what they were doing, that was the important thing. And after the first time Jim and Blair led a rescue party to a group of lost walkers, one of the group badly injured in a fall, they realized that there was a vicarious satisfaction in boasting about that. It might not be a prestigious job - but it was one that put Jim and Blair in a position where they could save lives. And both William and David had come to understand that _that_ was worth more than the ability to earn $1,000,000 or more in a year in a job where all they had a to do was sit in an office and give orders.


End file.
